Hi, all. I downloaded dsl-n, and realy like the look and speed of it, but I need some serious assistance.

I've been searching the forum and internet for answers, but what I am finding is pretty much Greek to me. I'm great on Windows and can program adequately in BASIC, but, other than that, I am a total NOOOOOOB.

I have a bunch of questions about Linux in general and DSL in particular regarding how to just perform basic day-to-day operations on it.

How do I load a needed ap from the internet? And how the hell to I know which ones to download from the non-descript directories written in some techno-babble-like language I keep finding? How do I permanantly save documents that I create so that they're there the next time I boot up? The list goes on and on.

I REALLY would like to find someone who could mentor me a little bit and get me off to a good start.

The ideal mentor would:
A) Be able to break Linux/DSL-N terminology down for me into English.
B) Be willing to communicate with me directly by email.
C) Check email regularly (maybe twice a day?)
D) Be able and willing to tolerate questions that anybody doing linux for more than a week would consider idiotic.

I'd really appreciate the one-on-one assistance.

If someone is interested in assisting a very interested noob, please contact me directly at copy@tbaaron.com

I don't think you're going to find what you need here. Some Linux distrubutions are oriented toward newbies training each other. DSL/DSL-N has a user community more oriented toward self-eduction. Not right, not wrong, but that's the DSL culture.

If you are looking for a newbie-friendly small distro, try Puppy. For a full-featured distro, try Ubuntu. See [url]http://distrowatch.com/[/url] for more info on each.

IMHO, the best book on the best Linux distro for beginners is [url]http://www.marcelgagne.com/mtubuntu.html[/url] Marcel Gagne is a brilliant writer who will get you started using Ubuntu Linux quickly. The Ubuntu forums have "Absolute Beginner Talk" at [url]http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?s=bf3c4083a06fa35fa902cac7c58860ff&f=73[/url], which sounds like just what you need.

If you really want to stay with DSL/DSL-N and are prepared to teach yourself, I'd highly recommend Mike Weber's book. See thread [url]http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=21;t=13243;hl=weber+and+book[/url]

For Linux beginners, there is tons of information online --
[url]http://www.psychocats.net/essays/linuxguide.php[/url]
[url]http://tmxxine.com/Wikka/wikka.php?wakka=LinuxBasics[/url]
[url]http://linux-newbie.sunsite.dk/[/url]